Caroline Wozniacki made light of the outside court experience at the US Open as she eased past in-form Andrea Petkovic to reach the semi-finals.
Sometimes you just have to slum it, even if you are the world number one. With Louis Armstrong stadium still rendered useless by puddles and a whole host of matches to get completed before the next showers arrived, Wozniacki found herself in the strange situation of competing on Court 13 in front of just a few hundred spectators.
“A little bit of different conditions today compared to what I've been used to. It actually reminded me of juniors, to be honest. I think the last time I played on this court was in the doubles or juniors. I prefer to play on (Ashe), definitely. I don't want to go back to juniors,” she laughed.
The effervescent Dane is enjoying life again after rediscovering her game in the past fortnight and she was at her pugnacious best to see off the powerful Petkovic 6-1, 7-6 to reach the last four for a third straight year.
Petkovic was simply unable to rein herself in, spraying her groundstrokes far and wide in the opening set. She settled a little in the second but Wozniacki had more than enough chances to wrap things up quickly before eventually finishing the job by taking the match in a tiebreak.
She's now relishing the chance of taking on 13-time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams on Saturday night.
"I'm No. 1 in the world at the moment and I've been playing well and I have had a great year," she said. "You know, both have nothing to lose. We'll just go out there, and hopefully will be a good battle. That's all that matters, you know, that I give it my all. After the match we'll see how good that was.”
